I’ve been thinking a lot about crafts lately. A Lot. I’ve mentioned before that I was put in charge of the craft book section in the bookstore I work at. This has opened my eyes to so much more that is out there.

It’s also got me thinking about my crafty history and my crafty future. And what is a blog for apart from recording?

My mum has always been a very crafty person. Very crafty, grew up in the 60s, so a little hippie-ish, always in to making things. Very very good with a sewing machine.
When I was little, she not only ran her own craft business, she ran our town’s big Christmas craft fair. So from the time I was about 3ish, she was a stay-at-home mum, so I spent a lot of time in the basement workroom, while she made teddy bears. I always played with the scraps from her garbage can.
When it came to craft fair time, I always wanted to be part of it, so one year mum let me have a card table space beside hers. I made (and when I say “I” I mean I made a few before I got bored and dad did the rest) origami ornaments and sold them for a whopping $0.50 each. It went over well, mainly because of my chubby 5-year-old cheeks, I think.
The next year I made more of them myself, plus some origami boxes filled with candy.
After a few years of origami, I was tired of that, so I switched to candles. I made poured candles in Goodwill mugs, goblets, whatever I could find that could withstand the heat. I also did rolled beeswax candles. Then I went away to school, and didn’t have the time for crafting for the fair anymore.
Mum also changed crafts. The fair got bigger and bigger as I grew up, and she went from teddy bears to placemats and other kitcheny things to Christmas ornaments. Christmas ornaments were the big thing.
Mum bought a fake Christmas tree when I was quite young, also some years the house would be fully decorated in November. She did courses on making Christmas ornaments and decorating, which ended with a tour of our house.

As I said, my mum is very crafty. Less so since the move to the city, now most of her energy is directed towards antiques and eBay. I started cross-stitching because I wanted to be just like mum. The two of us even pressured dad into starting one, which is amusing, because he is the only one who actually finished his project of the time. I think he’s crafty too, I have some vauge very young memories of him painting. I found the paintbox a few years ago, I don’t know why he stopped. He is a dentist, which is in a way, a craft: it certainly has the fine motor skills of things like tiny needle-work and model-making. Oh, and his sister! My auntie Judith is one of the craftiest people I know, apart from mum. Only unlike mum and I, she finishes projects. She’s done all sorts of things (their house is full of them!) but she is really involved in lace-making. Not knitting, but… is it called tatting? I’m not even sure. She also got me re-interested in beading the last time we visited.

I got into knitting a few years ago, when I couldn’t find a summer job. I did two craft fairs in university, the university organized one each year, and I made and sold eyelash scarves (and some of mum’s leftover Christmas ornaments, but shhh, I made them myself) one year, and last year I made more eyelash scarves and felted old sweaters into bags and iPod cosies.

Even though there’s gaps there in my craft fair years, I haven’t slacked onthe crafting. In my 22 years of existance, I’ve tried many of the options out there:
-origami
-friendship bracelets
-cross-stitch
-decorative painting
-Christmas ornaments
-card-making
-rubber-stamping
-polymer clay
-candle-making (poured & rolled)
-beading
-knitting
-soap-making
-re-constructing t-shirts
-altered books
-weaving
-that general ‘crafting’ that usually involves a glue gun, glittler, felt, and construction paper
-sewing, if you count the Robin Hood hat I made for my costume class in uni.

Sewing was the big thing I never got into. Mum is a sewing whiz, has her own serger, even! I got a sewing machine for Chrismas when I was about 10. Never used it more than twice. It’s sitting here in my own apartment now, 12 years later, I want to use it.

Crafting has always been a big part of my life, I’ve got the half-finished projects and extra supplies to prove it. Actually, I only have my knitting stuff here, because on the move out here (in my boyfriend’s Sunfire) I had to chose between my books and my extra craft stuff. That meant almost no debate. But it means I don’t even have white glue! a glue gun! Needle-nose pliers! acryilc paint! It’s very odd, especially when I’m in such a crafty mood as recently.

I want to run my own crafty business, from home. I want to organize an indy craft fair in this city. I want to try spinning (taking a class at Make 1 in a couple weeks) I want to try wet felting, needle felting, quilting, sewing… I’ve also got all sorts of ideas for Christmas decorating…

I’m on handcrafting overload, I just want to stay home and do it all, to actually have the time. But I work 9-5, I come home and have dinner, then I end up frittering away time getting even more ideas on the blogs. When I finally stop that, I then spend a good hour going through the not-really-organized craft/computer room, to confirm that I really did leave my trusty glue-gun at home. I’ve had that since I was 12!

Then it’s time for tea and bed.
I’ve got all this pent-up craftness inside that needs to get out.

I used to be a crafterfly: I’d be al enthused about beading for a while, buy all the supplies, make a few pretty things, then ohmygod look what you can do with these nifty sheets of wax! Knitting is the longest I’ve (actively) stuck with any craft.* I love it, even though I’m slow at it. I could never knit anything more than short novelty scarves for a craft fair. But wearing my own handmade socks is just amazing. As for a sweater I’ve made myself… ooooh.
And yet I still have all these other itches in my fingers. Whatever I start will take away from knitting time. But then, all my thinking about other crafts, and blogsurfing for other crafts takes away that knitting time.

I don’t craft to save or improve lives (except maybe my own), I’m never going to be asked to write a book, I don’t think my works will inspire others, I just have this urge to create and it’s feeling sadder and sadder that I spend 8 hours a day selling stuff (admittedly, books) when I could be crafting. I’d spend the day crafting, and relax in the evenings with my knitting. I’d have funky clothes, a deliciously decorated house, and warm baking smells wafting through it all the time. I wouldn’t sit around in sweats, broke from having no job, and 300 pounds from all that home baking. Nosiree.

Don’t even get me started on my sudden need to go thrifting…

*I have technically been working on the same cross-stitch since I was 12, in that it’s been sitting, half-finished in its hand-made bag for 10 years.

I like setting iTunes to random. I have 7 days worth of music (or just under 9.5GB), so I can get a whole lot of random. But I also like patterns. I’ve found the greatest thing to do to make interesting yet random playlists.
It’s actually an idea I got from someone I worked with in Victoria. She was talking about her brother has really bad insomnia. She and her family have taken to giving him tasks to do to tire him out, or give him something to do rather than stare at the walls. She’ll say something like ‘find all the songs you can that have a whistling solo’ or ‘songs with cowbell’ or whatever.
While I don’t have the time he does, I really liked the idea. Unfortunately, to create a cowbell playlist, I’d have to listen to every song I have (so far I have Honky Tonk Woman by the Rolling Stones), but I’ve made some easier ones. I generally go by title, so I have the ‘Colours’ playlist, the ‘Numbers’ playlist, I just made the ‘Weather’ playlist, I have ‘Days of the Week’, and that’s it so far. It’s great, because there’s a theme, but it never gets restricted to just one genre or artist. the only thing that restricts that is my music collection. One day, I will make the cowbell list. I need to remember to add songs when I hear them.

A few examples:
Weather
Raino – Chilliwack
Full Force Gale – Gordon Lightfoot
Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers
Greased Lightning – John Travolta (hee hee)
Raining in Baltimore – Counting Crows

Numbers
One Week – BNL
Mambo #5 – Lou Bega
Seven Seas of Rhye – Original Cast of We Will Rock You
634-5789 – Wilson Pickett
200lbs of Pure Love – the Red Elvises

Ecclectic and fun, or I think so anyway.

Know any songs with cowbell? I know BTO and the Guess Who have some, but my music library is sadly lacking their songs.

Speaking of BTO, you must listen to ‘Taking Care of Christmas’ sometime in the upcoming holiday season.

While I have knit a few more rows on the bubble jacket, ther progress is not interesting. I’m still not above my elbow. Hey, I’ve never claimed to be a fast knitter!

I thought I’d share a bit about my life, as when people find out what my chosen career path is, they’re always interested. Well, mostly interested. Some people say ‘that’s not a career!’, but we’ll ignore them.

I work in theatre. Well, want to work in theatre. This is very much an industry where you have to start at the bottom (you have to apprentice if you want to eventually earn enough to pay bills on that alone), which is why I’m working at the previously mentioned bookstore. I’m stage managing for a semi-professional company, and we’re about to go into tech week. Wikipedia has a pretty fair definition of what it is that I do. I disagree that it is a sub-discipline of stagecraft, but apart from that, the article is okay. Basically, anything that happens onstage, I am in charge of. The lights go when I tell them to, as does sound, projections, rain, snow, whatever. Actors too, although they are less easy to control than the lights.
Tech week is also sometimes know as hell week. That’s when we move from our rehearsal space to the stage, and try to integrate costumes, set, lights, sound and everything else with the actors. Up until this point we’ve been miming props, using only shoes for costumes, and wandering around in a room that is much smaller than the stage, and has an estimation of the set taped out on the floor.
I have so much fun doing it. I could never perform, I’m just not the right personality or temperment. I don’t feel I have the brain of a designer, I much prefer to just read the script, and believe what it says there. I don’t get crazy ideas for doing Lear, but in WWII, and Hitler is…. blah. But I love theatre. Being the anally-organized person I am, stage management is perfect for me.

To get some work closely related to stage management, I’ve applied to the technician’s union, as a stage hand/general grunt labourer. No calls from that yet, but I’m hopeful.

Also to pull in some extra money, I’m being a security guard at the local arena. That is fun, because I get to watch the big shows go up or come down (or both) and just generally observe.
I find the fact that I’m a security guard a constant source of amusement. I’m 5’3″ on a good day, and, well, I generally knit the smallest size any knitting pattern is written for. But the government has given me a licence, the company has given me a shirt with SECURITY in giant orange letters on the back, and I’ve earned money to stand and listen to concerts.

The list of people I’ve been paid to see stands at this so far:
-The Village People (who opened for….
-Cher
-Stuart MacLean (the Vinyl Cafe)
-Busta Rhymes (who opened for….
-Mariah Carey
-The Who
-the World Men’s Curling Championships 2005
-the Flames vs San Jose

I am most proud of Cher. And the Village People. I mean, who knew they were alive still? Still emotionally distraught that I moved away from my first usher/security job before Tom Jones played. Although, The Who did take their smoke breaks RIGHT BESIDE me. You’re not allowed to smoke inside, but who is going to tell Pete Townsend to move along?

Hopefully I’ll get a few more interesting concerts under my belt, and maybe even work on a few. Maybe one day I’ll go on tour. A good friend of mine is going in to her second year on tour with Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Another concert I am very proud of is one I got into free. A client (an American food chain) with much to much money invaded Banff back in March. They took over the most expensive hotel in town, and used our theatre for their awards show one night. I won’t go in to the extravagance, but it was stoopid. Coporate things like that always have entertainment in the evening. Most get local bands or dance groups or acrobats or something. Professionals-ish. Making money, but not famous. I mean, it is just a hotel ballroom/conference room. This one group? Got the Bare Naked Ladies. And because “ya’ll did such a good job” on the award thingy, we got to go to the concert at the hotel. I have danced in the front row of a Bare Naked Ladies concert. No security or anything. He sung ‘Memory’ from Cats in a falsetto. He made local jokes. It was cool.

So in this industry I get to meet lots of interesting people, famous or not, and see even more. There are gala evenings with secret rooms and absinthe and ballgowns, and that’s part of the love. I also love the hard work, seeing something I’ve slaved over come together, and seeing an audience enjoy it. For me, I think it really is the satisfaction of knowing that everything was in the right place, and it was technically just right. The audience is important, but my enjoyment is knowing that I did right. It’s a ‘that’ll do pig’ type of moment.

I’ve done a few more rows on that bubble sleeve, no picture, just imagine the last picture, only a couple more rows of bubbles. The way my time is right now, I don’t get anything more than Saturdays to knit, and I’ve got other stuff to do, like laundry and baking brownies and other fun stuff like that.

I took out the picture, because I realised that if you know the city, you’d know exactly where I live, right down to which balcony was mine. I’m fairly certain no one would stalk a knitting blog, but I worry. Sorry. Next time I’ll get socks and go outside and take one with a different point of view.

Yesterday at work, I got put in charge of the Crafts section!!
That means (as my manager said) it is like I have my own bookstore now, it is my domain. Mwahahahaha.
What would you like to see in a craft bookstore? Calgary crafters, what would you like to see on the shelves?

No knitting recently, not expecting any until Saturday (oh blessed day off).

I have had an whole entire day off to myself.
I’ve watched some TV (Full Metal Alchemist), read (Sojourn – RA Salvatore), and KNIT!

Sleeve #1 so far. I am still a tad worried about it making me look gorrilla-ish. Seeing it pinned on, and seeing that it is fitted (it looks so big on the needles!) I feel better, I think it is the colour that is making me nervous.

Categories: Bubble_

With my mammoth amount of work etc going on this month, I’m not going to get to knit much (if at all) but I still want to play, and stalk those that are knitting socks this month.

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I started in February of this year, and I taught myself using the pattern that came with my yarn, and the wonderful internet.
What was your first pair? How have they “held up” over time?
My first pair was my Olympic Knitting project, the yarn was Fleece Artist. They’ve pilled a bit, but they’ve also softened so much they’re lovely.
What would you have done differently?
Honestly, nothing. Oh wait… sorry, I haven’t worn them for a while (summer and all) so I forgot: instead of using a stitchmarker to mark the begining, I just pinned a safety pin to the sock. I didn’t move it every round, like you do with markers. This ended up meaning that the heel and toe of sock #1 don’t line up like they should. They don’t make then unwearble, but it is a little weird.
What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
For me, a sock yarn HAS to be superwash.
Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I use 5 dpns, but I am interested in trying two circulars. I just don’t have two the same size or the money to shell out for that (I just bought my first Addi Turbo…. oooooh shiny)
Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
My two pairs of socks so far have been flaps. I want to try a short row, although I realised that the uncomfortable store-bought socks I’m wearing right now are short-row or something similar.
How many pairs have you made?
Two. My Olympic pair, and a pair of Jaywalkers. I have a Simply Lovely Lace sock on the needles, working on the instep.

Categories: Socks_

Can I just say I love theatre?
In what other industry can you be earning double time and a half, and have your boss serving you absinthe?
I wasn’t working, but I still got some absinthe. I was supposed to get into this big do for $20 by going in the alley door at 11pm (real tickets were $250, and it started at 8pm). I ended up getting in free because some random French man I have never met before made it his duty to convince the security guard I was a performer.

Saturday night was a good night.